A Week at Camp
by Quiet-dreamer
Summary: What happens when Monica has trouble with the truth? I fixed the format for the last chapter, please R & R
1. At Last!

"Tess, can angels get a hernia?" Andrew complained in a really tired voice.  
  
"Andrew you're a whimp." Emily remarked, "Let me grab your bag." Andrew handed his bag to her and she rushed ahead of him.  
  
"Baby, can you handle two duffels and your sleeping bag?" Tess wondered, worried about her wearing herself out.  
  
"Tess, I'm not a stranger to camp, or camp duffels." Emily claimed, "I think Andrew is though." She giggled at him.  
  
"Where on earth is Monica?" Tess asked as they reached the clearing near the camp. Andrew sat down on a boulder, but Emily kept going.  
  
The group finally reached the beginning of a camp's driveway. It was unpaved and small, but led to a big lake with cabins placed all around it for the girls that were soon to arrive in the buses.  
  
"So Tess, am I in a normal cabin, or a staff kids one?" Emily asked as if it were an everyday question.  
  
"What?" Tess answered somewhat perplexed, "What are staff kids?"  
  
"Oh, sorry Tess," Emily replied, "Staff kids are a nickname of the kids that stay in different cabins because they aren't really campers, just kids of the people that work here."  
  
"Yes," Tess understood now and started to explain the situation to Emily, "You're in a cabin with me as your councilor and five other girls."  
  
"Have fun." Andrew whispered to Emily sarcastically.  
  
"I heard that!" Tess called, but the buses pulled into the driveway before she could get to him. 


	2. The Letter

The girls got off the buses and went to their cabins. All of them looked so happy and eager to be there and Emily became excited as more and more buses came. In grand total there were about 500 girls there.  
  
Emily didn't see Monica, but she was informed shortly later that Monica decided to change assignments with Rafael. Tess wasn't too happy; you could have said she was really perturbed. Emily warned her bunkmates, Tai, Sarah, Jessica, Brielle and Krystal to stay clear of her for a while. Camp was enjoyable so far to Emily, she loved being there with the people that took care of her so they would be there if she needed them.  
  
When the mail came on Saturday, Sarah went to retrieve it from the office. There was a letter for almost everyone from parents wondering if they got there okay and were settled in yet. However, Emily's letter made her jaw drop and her tears jerk.  
  
"What's wrong baby?" Tess wondered after seeing Emily's reaction to the letter. Emily just shook her head passively meaning nothing.  
  
"Come on Em, what's wrong?" Tai asked putting a comforting hand around Emily's shoulder. Emily shook her head again.  
  
"Nothing is wrong." She said quietly, "I need to talk to Monica, is she back yet?" Emily addressed Tess while fighting back tears.  
  
"No not yet-" Tess was cut off  
  
"Is it okay if I take a walk?" Emily asked but before she could get an answer, she walked out the door.  
  
Tess notified Andrew, the swimming instructor, and Raphael, the nurse, to keep an eye out for Emily because technically, she had left the cabin with out permission and was missing-in-action.  
  
Emily took her letter and found a rock off the beaten path in the sun. She sat down but was still shell shocked. The letter had told her that her father was in the hospital, but after her mom's death the fall before, he was all she had left. Emily prayed, sang her quiet lullaby to her self, and wiped the tears from her face. She knew she had to go back to the cabin, but what would make her feel better would be talking to Monica. 


	3. Talking

"Baby, where have you been? We've been worried; Andrew and Raphael were looking for you." Tess admonished Emily in private.  
  
"I'm sorry Tess, they couldn't find me. I had a feeling that they would want to talk and the only person I want to talk to is Monica is she back yet?" Emily poured out.  
  
"You'll see her at dinner." Tess said sternly. Emily was surprised at the sternness, but didn't argue because she simply didn't have the energy. She had skipped lunch because of her "trip" into the woods.  
  
Dinner was fun, but through the songs and great meal, Emily looked for Monica. "You'll see her later Em." Krystal kept saying, "Don't worry." However, Emily couldn't help think of her dad and how she might loose him, only Monica would understand.  
  
Tess managed to get over to Monica and after reprimanding her about her assignment switch, she started to talk about Emily. "Now miss wings, a lot has happened since you've been on your excursion."  
  
"Like what?" Monica asked quietly  
  
"Well, Emily, your baby other there has gotten a letter and she hasn't been the same since. She wants to talk, but only to you. And if she doesn't talk to anyone, her feelings will stay bottled up inside like when you first met her."  
  
Monica looked distressed, "What did the letter say?"  
  
"Something that could alter both you and her lives for a long time." Tess proclaimed. Dinner was dismissed even though Emily only picked at her food. Monica came over and sat down on the bench. "Would you like to take a walk?" she asked optimistically. Emily nodded knowing that she would finally get her moment alone with Monica.  
  
Once they were on a trail in the woods, Emily stopped and looked at Monica with empty eyes. Monica turned around and was able to see Emily's hurt. First Emily pulled out the letter and handed it to Monica, then she pulled her locket from behind the neckline of her shirt. After Monica finished reading the letter, she looked at Emily with sympathy, but then Emily opened the locked to display a picture of her mom and a new picture of her dad.  
  
"Since my dad is dying, I figure I'll save some time now and put his picture in here with mom." Emily blurted out.  
  
"No, no, no sweetie. Your dad isn't going to." Monica stopped and paused because for once she couldn't find the right words, "He isn't going to die today, or-" But before she could finish her sentence, Emily turned and ran away. Her angel that was supposed to comfort her just told her that there's a possibility of her father dying in the near future and she didn't want to hear that.  
  
On the way, Emily fell over a rock in the path directly onto her knee. She stayed on the ground for a moment to ease the pain in her leg, but forced herself to stand back up and run because she knew Monica was close behind her, and for some reason, she didn't really want to talk to her anymore. 


	4. Swimming Lessons

The next day, Emily's knee burnt like crazy, but she had a swimming lesson. She put on her bathing suit and found the largest, longest shorts she could find to cover her knee that was swollen and scraped pretty bad. She didn't want to have to explain to anyone what happened the previous night  
  
Breakfast was fine, but when Emily ignored Monica, Tess knew something was up.  
  
"What on earth happened last night? Your baby doesn't look any better." Tess wondered.  
  
Monica looked almost embarrassed but was obliged to tell Tess about her and Emily's walk in the woods. "Well, I got tongue tied with the truth for the first time. I didn't tell her what she wanted to hear, and she ran away from me before I could finish." Monica replied with a shrug.  
  
"That isn't good angel girl!" Tess urged, "She's going back to her old ways; she doesn't want to talk or tell you how she feels because she's afraid again that you would reject her. Even she doesn't want to go back, I can tell, but something has clicked in her brain and is on her mind 24/7."  
  
Monica nodded, worried about Emily because of her old habits of bottling everything inside of her. "Shall I try again tonight?"  
  
"No, Andrew is going to take a whack at it."  
  
Tess went to the pond with the cabin; everyone got into the warm water, except Emily. Emily sat on the dock and dangled her toes in the water, but didn't dare go in because she was afraid of her knee getting infected.  
  
"So you don't want to get wet today?" Andrew came over and asked, sitting down next to her on the dock.  
  
"No" Emily bluntly replied  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because."  
  
"Are you sure? The water is great." Andrew encouraged, trying to get Emily to talk to him more.  
  
Emily picked up her feet out of the water and turned towards Andrew, becoming slightly fustrated with him not leaving her alone. She didn't realize that she exposed her knee when she turned. "Yes, I'm sure" She said somewhat snottily and firm.  
  
"That's why not, isn't it?" Andrew said, and pointed to her knee. Emily quickly covered it with her hand, annoyed with herself that she didn't keep it covered.  
  
"You need to go to the nurse about that." Andrew said, then paused seeing an opportunity for disscusion, "What happened?"  
  
"I tripped." Emily replied, curtly.  
  
Andrew looked her in the eye and said, "Go to the nurse, that needs to get fixed up and iced, it's swollen." Andrew helped Emily to her feet and was about to let her go to the nurse when he said, "Where'd you trip?" while Emily put her shoes on.  
  
"On a path." Emily plainly said again.  
  
"There's something you're not telling me." Andrew insisted.  
  
"I believe that I have to go to the nurse. Emily straightened up and said to him face to face. Andrew noticed that there was no emotion in her eyes at all. Once she had left, limping, Tess came over to talk to him.  
  
"She's hardening fast Tess." He observed to her  
  
"But she'll break down just as fast so you should be ready." Tess warned. 


	5. Lost Locket

Emily Got to the nurse and saw Monica standing in the room. She had avoided her for the past 24 hours and she still felt awkward around her. So she took a deep breath and went in.  
  
"Hello." Monica said.  
  
"Hi" Emily replied quietly.  
  
"Rafael will be here in a second, he went to the office to get something for one of my campers." Monica explained, "I can help you."  
  
The words "my campers" coming out of Monica's mouth made Emily jealous that Monica was focusing on other things when Emily was in trouble and needed help. But with that same feeling, she didn't want Monica to help her with anything because of what she said the night before.  
  
"No, that's okay; I just need a band aid." Emily insisted quietly.  
  
Monica and Emily stood in the room for a minute while a silence settled in around them. Finally Monica found something to say, but it didn't do much good.  
  
"You took your locket off." Monica stated, looking at Emily's neck and surprised to see no gold chain hanging onto the locket that her dad had given to her that past Christmas, the fist time he was in the hospital.  
  
Emily's hand whet right up to her neck and after frantically searching for her necklace, she knew Monica was right. "Oh no, I dropped it in the woods last night when I." Emily stopped and glared at Monica almost angrily, "Why am I telling you this, I have to find it."  
  
She bolted out of the nurse's office, skipped the three steps, and looked for the path she ran on last night. It was difficult to differentiate between the paths, considering that it was dark last night  
  
Meanwhile, Tess came onto the scene with Monica and told her, "Hold onto you halo, angel girl. It's going to be a bumpy ride back to the past." 


	6. Painful Memories

Emily ran as best she could with her knee to the path that looked the most like the one she was on last night. The root was still sticking out of the ground, so Emily started searching in a panic stricken way. She tried to kneel, but it hurt too much.  
  
"I think you dropped this." Andrew said, as he held out the locked draped over his forefinger and thumb. He was also "glowing." The locked, Emily noticed, was missing the picture of her dad.  
  
"Thanks" Emily replied, trying to be grateful to him. She looked at him for a moment and said in a sarcastic voice, "I don't need to be 'Touched by an Angel'"  
  
"Maybe you don't, but your attitude does." Andrew reasoned  
  
"That's why I have Monica."  
  
"But you aren't listening."  
  
"Because she doesn't want to waste her time with me." Emily's voice got quieter towards the end of the sentence, as if it was the first time she was saying her fear aloud.  
  
As she sat down on the ground, Andrew sat next to her so he could talk to her at eye level.  
  
"Really?" Andrew questioned, wanting again for Emily to talk to him. Emily nodded her head sadly. "I'm going back to the nurse." She said, looking at her knee that was more swollen than before "It's getting worse." Emily stood up and left as Andrew sighed to himself; he was hoping that she would open up to him. They were, after all, friends.  
  
Emily hobbled back to the nurse and went in, more depressed than before. She did want to talk to Andrew, but her mind just wouldn't let her.  
  
"Hello, what happened to you?" Rafael asked as she limped through the doorway. "And don't tell me that you just tripped, Andrew already told me that one." He added seeing her frown as he said that.  
  
"I fell over a root in the woods last night and landed on a few rocks. My hands got scraped up pretty bad, but I already washed them." She held up her hands to show him the scabs and scratches that were starting to heal. "But what is the worst is my knee." She finished and pulled up her pant leg to show Rafael her bruises and scars  
  
"Oh, girl, that doesn't look to good at all." He said going to the cabinet, "Now I'm not going to lie to you, its going to hurt a lot when we clean it up. If you came to me last night I would have told you to get stitches."  
  
He looked at Emily who was getting a scared look on her face. Rafael didn't know her as well as Monica, but he did know that she had a low pain tolerance. "If you want, you can go grab Monica or Tess so they can help take your mind off it."  
  
Andrew had learned from Emily that if you eavesdrop, you can learn a lot more than what you know. So for the first time, he tried it and when hearing Emily in need of someone, he took his opportunity and went inside; Emily had dropped her locket again anyway.  
  
"Hey Em, just wanted to give you your locket back again; I think I might have to fix the clasp so it doesn't fall off anymore." Andrew said as he entered the office. Emily turned around; Andrew could tell how scared she was.  
  
Emily wiped her eyes to hide the tears of fear coming to her eyes, "You were eavesdropping weren't you?" She said unconfidently, with her voice wavering, and smiled at his sheepish nod, "Well you can't fool the master of the talent. But will you please stay with me since you're already here and I don't want her to help, she has campers" Emily emphasized "her" meaning Monica.  
  
So Andrew sat down next to Emily and put his arm around her. Emily's eyes were tearing before Raphael started because she was so afraid. The next twenty minutes were like hell for Emily, Raphel had to first pick bark out of some of the scabs and then he washed it with hydrogen peroxide repeatedly until there were no bubbles left. After all that, he had to put freezing cold water on it to flush everything out.  
  
Andrew encouraged Emily to not look at her knee the whole time, but to look at him so that she wouldn't focus on it. He started to tell her the story of when they first came to camp from his point of view. ".And Tess told me that you were lost and upset, so I wanted to find you so I could comfort you; we were all worried." Andrew looked down on her and smiled, Emily smiled back until Raphael pulled another piece of bark out of her scar and she winced in pain. He continued, "I could tell something was wrong when you came to swimming lessons this morning, but you wouldn't talk to me."  
  
Emily listened to the story until it was finished, and Raphael said, "Girl, I'm proud of you, everything is clean and ready to go. Just let me wrap it with an ace bandage and give you some ice, but I need you back in here tomorrow so I can see how it's healing."  
  
Emily nodded and wiped the last tears from her face as she looked at Andrew. "I'm sorry I was running. But I was so scared that everything would just repeat itself and I thought if I didn't say it, it wouldn't happen."  
  
"Its okay, I'm glad you decided to talk to me again. I might just have to come visit you this week during activities; I doubt you'll be able to participate with your knee." Andrew replied.  
  
Raphael came back to give Emily ice and directions on how to stay off her knee and let it heal. After he was done, Emily gave him a hug and left the office. 


	7. Journals

Emily limped out of the nurse's office and realized that she had no place to go; she didn't know where her cabin was, she did not want to go find Monica, and Andrew was giving more swimming lessons. So in a last minute decision, Emily decided to go back to her cabin and wait.  
  
"Helllloooooo?" Emily called into the empty bunk, checking to make sure she was safe alone. "Is anyone in here?" When no one answered, she cautiously walked in, scared of what to do. (Little did she know that Monica and Andrew were watching her out of sight.)  
  
Emily collapsed on her bed and curled into a small ball. Her mind was racing about everything that had happened in the past day and a half; Monica not comforting her, Andrew eavesdropping and hearing his story, and on top of it all, her dad in the hospital again.  
  
Underneath the pillow on Emily's bed, her hand crept up to meet the journal that had heard everything about the first few months with Monica, Tess, and Andrew. In anger, Emily threw the book across the room and left it open to a page in Monica's reach on the floor.  
  
Andrew nudged Monica to pick up the Journal and as she held it gently he told her, "She wants you to see this, to know what she really does feel. But she doesn't have the courage to show you."  
  
Monica started reading the journal out loud and got softer until she was silent as she read:  
  
"Dear Journal I really hope that I could show Monica this sometime this week, but I don't think she would have the time and I'm too afraid so here it goes. I miss my dad so much, almost more than my mom because I got to say goodbye to her and I know that I'll see her again. This is the second time he has been in the hospital since the accident. I lay on my bed at night just dreaming for someone to come along side me and love me and take me in to tell me that everything will be okay. I have Monica but-"  
  
Monica paused there and looked at Andrew who was now joined by Tess, "I don't think I want to read anymore."  
  
"Keep going, angel girl, you know she loves you, what came be painful from someone you love?" Tess encouraged.  
  
Monica continued, "She just seems preoccupied with the other girls. I'm jealous. I know that she has her work and I respect that but, she's, well, it sounds stupid, but I miss her. When I'm not with her, I wish I was. I try not to, but I feel scared of familiar things like my feelings, my openness with Monica, and my friendships with Tess and Andrew. Especially my feelings, I can't express them anymore. I love camp, but I'm not sure I like being here. Goodnight mom, dad, and Monica wherever you are. Emily."  
  
Monica finished and looked for Tess or Andrew, but they were nowhere to be found. "I guess I know what I have to do." She said to herself. 


End file.
